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Cybersecurity experts warn on growing ‘whaling attacks’ by 200%

CyberWisdom Safe Harbor Commentary on Whaling Attacks

A recent story from irishexaminer.com believes surprising Cybersecurity experts warning that the so-called “whaling attack,” in which the company’s chief executive is a liar target, has tripled in the past year.

Whaling attacks are a form of phishing that criminals realize that the chief executive is not in the country and then pretend they are asking for money from the company.

Often, this will cause employees to remit bank accounts but instruct them not to contact the CEO directly.

Whaling Attacks Defense

Ronan Murphy, chief executive of SmartTech247, said: “Knowledge is the best form of defensive cyber security attack.”

Mr. Murphy added that education is crucial to ensuring a higher level of security in order to combat what he calls “global issues.”

“In 2017, the cost of cybercrime to the global economy is estimated at 500 billion U.S. dollars (40.3 billion euros),” he said. “It is widely accepted that cybercrime will continue to have stratospheric growth over the next five years and that the loss of cybercrime will cost about $ 6 trillion a year globally by 2021 mainly due to more insecure connected devices and the lack of basic networks Driven by safety practices. ”

Head of National Economic Crime Bureau in Garda, including Irish Financial Intelligence Unit, chief Souter Paxton, said the information is now more valuable than money.

“We can not stop all online fraud and cyber attacks, but we can educate businesses and people to stop them,” he said. “This is not just the goal of a large enterprise, it is a company of all sizes, education is the way forward and the more things our organization plans to do this year.”

Read More…

Cybersecurity experts have warned so-called ‘whaling attacks’, in which company CEOs are targeted by scammers, have tripled in the past year. Whaling attacks are a form of phishing and one example is where criminals become aware that a CEO is out of the country and then impersonates them to ask for money from the company. Typically it results in an instruction to staff to transfer money to a bank account but directs them not to contact the CEO directly. Cybersecurity firm SmartTech247 has estimated that ‘whaling’ attacks have risen 200% in the last year alone. SmartTech247 CEO Ronan Murphy said: “Knowledge is the best form of defence for cybersecurity attacks.” Mr Murphy added that education was vital is ensuring higher levels of security to combat what he said was a “global issue”. “In 2017 the cost of cybercrime to the global economy has been estimated at $500bn [€403bn],” he said. “It is widely accepted that cybercrime will continue its stratospheric growth over the next five years, and cybercrime damages will cost the world $6tn annually by 2021. This will mainly be driven by more insecure connected devices and the lack of basic cybersecurity practices.” The head of the Garda National… Engaging post, Read More…

thumbnail courtesy of irishexaminer.com

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Pseudo author name by David S. Eng offers valuable information and cyber threat incident alerts to protect, prevent, mitigate, respond, recover, and learn about Cybersecurity threats to your business and family. CyberWisdom author curated Cyber Security Information and News Feeds and Articles. He has six years of hands on experiences as the principal researcher for DHS Cybersecurity Pilot Program on cyber threat intelligence, risk management, cyber technologies, web collaboration tools.